In highly exothermic reactions such as hydro-cracking, a fixed catalyst bed is divided into a number of stages with quench boxes between the stages. A quench fluid is introduced into the main fluid flow in the reactor vessel between the stages in order to keep the catalyst bed temperatures within the desirable operating range. The interstage quench assembly usually consists of a quench distributor and a mixing zone quench box located directly below the quench distributor in down-flow type reactors. The quench box mixes the quench fluid and the reactor flow before they enter into the catalyst bed downstream. Depending upon the particular type of reaction carried out in the vessel, the quench fluid can be a single-phase gas or liquid or it can be a mixed-phase fluid such as a gas and liquid mixture.
In typical reactors, the quench zone is usually made as small as possible in order to minimize the reactor height and to reduce capital investment.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel quench fluid distributor which is compact and yet can provide good distribution and effective mixing between the quench fluid or mixture of fluids and the main fluid in the reactor.